The lion's share of Toronto FC players may wish to hide their report cards following a disappointing 3-1 home defeat against Tigres UANL in Wednesday night's inaugural Campeones Cup.
The reigning MLS champs looked to have the upper hand for the first 30 minutes, giving the visitors next to no room to run while bossing possession. Unfortunately, the game turned in a direction emblematic of their trying campaign and the trophy was lost after three quite avoidable goal leaks.
Alex Bono (3.5) — The TFC netminder had a couple of solid early moments, but the night turned quite sour when he committed the cardinal sin of conceding at his near post from an angle. In the second half, Bono reacted slowly to Jesus Dueñas' decisive second and got his footwork all wrong on the own goal.
Gregory van der Wiel (5) — It was a subpar showing from the veteran right back, who was guilty of some bad turnovers and danger restart concessions.
Eriq Zavaleta (5) — We won't count against Zavaleta for his own-goal touch, but he definitely fell asleep tracking the run of Dueñas on the first goal. On the plus side, the defender came up with some strong area interventions.
Michael Bradley (6) — With the first half spent in defense and the second operating from his usual midfield station, the skipper put in a no-frills shift without major mistakes.
Nick Hagglund (4.5) — The defender put his side under duress with a couple of silly giveaways in the home end, and took his sweet time getting out to close down Dueñas on the winner.
Justin Morrow (5) — The left wingback failed to have any real impact going forward, despite being presented with some promising attack possessions. More importantly, Morrow completely flubbed a chance to clear directly ahead of the Tigres capper.
Marky Delgado (4.5) — The No. 18 shirt did many of those midfield "little things" he's known for before Tigres broke the ice, but struggled mightily from there. Put simply, Delgado was sloppy in possession much too often.
Jay Chapman (6.5) — Not that it's saying so much, but Chapman was the brightest TFC player through most of the night. His build play put the hosts into several good attack positions (even if most were unduly squandered).
Jonathan Osorio (6.5) — If it was Chapman that got the Reds into the final third, Osorio was the man who caused Tigres the most cumulative stress there. His runs and interplay around the area deserved better from teammates.
Giovinco vs. Tigres | USA Today Sports Images
Sebastian Giovinco (5) — Before leaving with a knock, the Atomic Ant was extremely loose with his touches in the final third and failed to take advantage of his ability to draw defenders away from teammates. Giovinco did serve up a couple of very tempting restarts, though.
Jozy Altidore (5.5) — The Reds striker was effective with his link and possession work, but never had any great effect in and around the Tigres box.
Coach Greg Vanney (5) — Sending his team out in their comfy 3-5-2 was a smart move, and his boys looked fully in control until the Dueñas opener. The decision to switch to a four-man back line proved unwise, however, and two of his three substitutes were largely underwhelming.
Subs
Lucas Janson (6) — Apparently suffering from the ball-handling difficulties of the man he replaced, the first-half injury sub took a long time to get into the swing. Janson eventually found some nice spaces to operate in the build and his assured penalty-kick conversion brings this mark up to average.
Tosaint Ricketts (4) — The Canada veteran had almost no impact after replacing Altidore up front, and made the inexplicable decision to retreat from an onside position to get in the way of a promising Chapman drive.
Auro (6) — The game was all but lost when he entered the game, but the Brazilian continually forced play up his wing until his cross earned the TFC spot kick.
